I thought I was buying a (used) CD of German Baroque Christmas music… it was in fact a 7-CD set. I am going to need more days of Christmas.

Last craft market on Saturday: I am just about sold out of everything. Next week I’ll start over. I feel like the ox cart man. Only less picturesque.

Harvesting the last of the fall garden on the solstice.

Ice is slippery, but we still don’t really know why.

There are two sources of music at this event. A few minutes ago Bing Crosby was crooning “O Come All Ye Faithful” while at the same time I could hear Steve Perry imploring “Don’t Stop Believin’.” If somebody out there wants to steal that for a sermon, it’s yours… I’m not doing anything with it.

Well, I could have just used this Wren Song. But I expect it’s some sort of European wren. All wrong. Tempting anyhow. Next time.

Beware the Belsnickel

Started out this morning to re-carve my “angry wren” carving only to decide I wanted to do more with it. (The present half-life of my satisfaction with my carvings is maybe six months. He has these little hairy feathers… right here…) Wound up down a rabbit hole (wren hole?) trying to figure out how to transcribe a Carolina wren’s song in musical notation, and eventually bought this book, which I guess I can justify as a business expense. This, meanwhile, was my attempt to write it down.

Can’t remember the last time we got snow in December.…

Another shot at a carved version of illuminated music: trying to work within a folk-art motif while making the illustration realistic enough that it isn’t merely kitschy. The music is the chorale from Bach’s cantata for Advent, “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben,” but you may know it by another name.